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Holy Crap 20th Century Fox Is Stupid

ACW

By ACW
in The Tailgate

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ACW

ACW

Posted
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Saw this on Family Guy, and confirmed that, yes, it is indeed true:

When Lucas negotiated his deal with Fox to make Star Wars, the studio was shocked to learn that the red hot director was not asking for a lot of money. Instead, Lucas wanted control. He wanted to have the right to the final cut of the film, 40% of the net box-office gross, all rights to future sequels and ownership of all the merchandising rights associated with Star Wars. In the 1970's, science fiction films were not very profitable. Hence, Fox thought they were ripping Lucas off. Sequel and merchandise rights to science fiction films were worthless at the time. In the end, this deal would eventually make Lucas a multi billionaire and cost Fox an untold fortune in lost revenues. Lucas revealed he wanted control over Star Wars in order to keep the movie studio from ruining Star Wars, not because Lucas was trying to make the best movie deal in Hollywood history.
Advantage: Lucas
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scruffylookin

scruffylookin

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:ols: true.

Nope. Just opinion.

While I prefer the first trilogy to the second, I also acknowledge the fact that I was in my early 30s when the second trilogy came out versus being 7,10,13 when the first one graced the big screen. I wasn't exactly the target audience for the prequels. I wish people kind of get that through their skulls.

As for Lucas vs Fox, I have no doubt that it strictly was about control over his intellectual property. Nobody, not even George, foresaw the epic monster box office and merchandising cash cow that Star Wars would become.

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Burgold

Burgold

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Other famous stupid stories. Frank Baum's publisher thought his latest children's novel was a dud, a real loser, but Frank beleived in it. After arguing and arguing with them, he finally he struck a deal. He would give to the publisher the full rights to a poor selling Alphabet book he wrote in return for them publishing his latest book and him getting the full returns for it.

That book, as you probably guessed, was the Wizard of Oz.

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ArmchairRedskin

ArmchairRedskin

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Nope. Just opinion.

While I prefer the first trilogy to the second, I also acknowledge the fact that I was in my early 30s when the second trilogy came out versus being 7,10,13 when the first one graced the big screen. I wasn't exactly the target audience for the prequels. I wish people kind of get that through their skulls.

As for Lucas vs Fox, I have no doubt that it strictly was about control over his intellectual property. Nobody, not even George, foresaw the epic monster box office and merchandising cash cow that Star Wars would become.

I don't think it's exactly true that Star Wars was ever meant to be geared towards younger people. Those original movies were liked by young and old alike. The problem is that Lucas himself has always thought that people were more interested in spectacle than characters. He had a a lot of help with fleshing out his characters his first go around. I think his second go around he got lost in trying to provide the biggest possible spectacle and as a result the characters often times come of as perfunctory.

And the Star Wars merchandise was huge with me and my friends. Birthdays and Christmases were filled with that stuff for a few years for us. Star Wars and Hot Wheels. Good times.

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Bang

Bang

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The problem is that Lucas himself has always thought that people were more interested in spectacle than characters. He had a a lot of help with fleshing out his characters his first go around. .

I think the biggest problem is it overall suffers from a plot that is a grade-Z dungeons and dragons game storyline. It is so simplistic that it requires spectacle and awesome effects,,, or people would see it for the rather bland and totally unoriginal idea that it is.

One thing I'll give him,, he's managed to ride the living hell out of it.

~Bang

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USS Redskins

USS Redskins

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Thats why Lucas is a billionaire. What a move...

Another simple marketing move that he pushed for: opening the movie while the kids were still in school (May)- the studio wanted it to open July 4th. He wanted the kids to tell each other how awesome the movie was - it worked.

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Bliz

Bliz

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Hindsight is 20/20. It wasn't that stupid at the time. Merchandising prior to Star Wars wasn't anything like it was today. Fox undoubtedly thought they had really got one over on him. Who knew it would re-write the way money is made on movies?

The really shocking thing is that they made the same mistake a 2nd time, and gave Matt Groening such a huge piece of the Simpsons merchandising in exchange for lowering his shares or other more traditional forms of payment. Fool me once...

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Lombardi's_kid_brother

Lombardi's_kid_brother

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Yeah, actually I HADN'T known the deal. Lucas is a genius (or is Fox just stupid) (or both?).

Yea...that's one of the more well-known stories in Hollywood history. Lucas is a billionaire because of that first contract with Fox.

It's actually worse for Fox. All six Star Wars films are - more or less - indenpdent films. Fox is little more than a distributor for them.

For instance, ILM was created because Lucas needed a special effects shop for the first film and 20th Century Fox didn't really have the division. So, Lucas created a shop from scratch. And owns it.

I would guess that THX alone has made Lucas several hundred million dollars.

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Lombardi's_kid_brother

Lombardi's_kid_brother

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Also, it's giving 20th Century Fox too much credit to say that nobody could imagine film licensing in 1977.

20th Century Fox had produced Planet of the Apes - which led to four sequels, a Saturday Morning cartoon, a tv show, a comic book, acton figures, and other collectibles. My next door neighbor growing up had all the action figures, which were actually about the size of Ken dolls.

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.thetoyfederation.com/files/t_20229.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thetoyfederation.com/product.php%3Fproductid%3D20229&h=560&w=420&sz=33&tbnid=weROwmt_DPTprM:&tbnh=133&tbnw=100&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dplanet%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bapes%2Baction%2Bfigures&hl=en&usg=__epTjkbFJh_1stNpK1nAXOvODFJY=&ei=9h39S7mWIpCSNuvojN4H&sa=X&oi=image_result&resnum=9&ct=image&ved=0CEMQ9QEwCA

They had already seen the future of the business a decade earlier and ignored the lesson with Star Wars. Lucas took it to another level of course, but it's not like Fox had no idea that this could happen.

Forgotten fact. The movie came out in 1977. The action figures did not come out until 1978.

Think about that. The movie was so huge that you could sell related merchandise a year later and there would still be a massive demand. It would be as if Avatar merchandise was released in February 2011 and became the hottest toy of the year.

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